Thinking Inking

Get Well Soon

How about a a spot of "Get Well" tea today?  I chose Papertrey Ink's Tea for Two stamp set, along with papers from Dawn's June Color Couture Volume 4 Download, which I printed then on my inkjet printer. Aren't these just the happiest colors together?

The little border stamp on the Spellbinders Labels Four die is from Waltzingmouse Stamps Vintage Labels Four set. I used Copic markers to color the teapot: BG 11, BG13, Y32, Y35, T1, and 0. Ribbon is Hawaiian Shores grosgrain, and buttons are Lemon Tart Vintage Buttons. The sentiment is die cut with a Spellbinders Double-Ended Tags die. Ink was Memento Tuxedo Black and Versamagic Turquoise Gem.

Thanks for stopping by!

June Zva Blog Hop Winners Announced

We'd like to congratulate the five June Zva Blog Hop winners! Winners' names will be posted on the following blogs some time on Wednesday: 

Jana Eubank 

Carole Maurin 

Teri Anderson

Tara Orr

Angelica Franssen  

One winner from each of the five blogs listed above will receive a Zva prize package worth $30.00. Congrats, winners!

Stitched with Love: Popsicles and Pinwheels Challenge

Welcome! If you are looking for the Zva Creative Blog Hop, click here or scroll down to the next post. Thanks!

Today I have a challenge card for the Shabby Tea Room's Popsicles and Pinwheels challenge. Isn't this a great little inspiration picture?

I had fully intended to use my Cosmo Cricket DeLovely paper, but I wasn't sure how to shabby it up properly. When I remembered the quilt-patterned  sheet from my Fly a Kite pad (October Afternoon),  I knew that it would work for the "pinwheels" aspect of the challenge. 

Of course, a quilt patterned paper needed some quilt blocks! I pulled out my JustRite Stampers Appliqué Border and Center set for the focal image. Ink was varied: Papertrey's Raspberry Fizz, Versamagic Tea Leaves and Turquoise Gem, and Clearsnap Rouge Fluid Chalk, shabbied up with some Papertrey Ink Chamomile Distress Ink.

I used some Spellbinders dies to cut the mats for my quilt squares, though I punched the quilt squares to give them a little more room on the outside than I would have gotten with my nested die. I used the Scalloped Square Nestability for the quilt base and two nested Plain Square dies for the sentiment in the center. 

Vintage white button and 1/8" silk ribbon are both from Papertrey Ink; I dyed the ribbon with one an R83 Copic Marker. 

Be sure to see what the Shabby Tea Room Team has come up with this week. If you participate in their challenge and link as directed, you might win a nice prize there.  Good luck, and thanks for stopping by today!

Zva Creative DT Blog hop

Are you ready to be inspired?

As you may know, I am a proud design team member for Zva Creative. We are joining together today to share a project that we have created using some of our favorite Zva Creative products. I am hoping that you will take some time to join us for a little bit of fun! The Blog Hop begins at Kim Hughes' blog.She will have the complete list of all blogs that are participating in case there is a glitch along the way. If you would like to play along, I am linking to one of the Zva designers (Lisa Johnson) and that designer is linking to the next and so on. There are 19 design team members, so be prepared to be inspired along the way. Hidden on 5 of the blogs is a Zva Creative prize package! Those blogs will be randomly chosen after the hop is over, so it's important to leave a comment on as many blogs as you can along the way.

This Blog Hop runs through midnight US Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, June 29th and the five winners will be announced on Wednesday, June 30th on each of the winning blogs and the full list will be found on Kim Hughes‘s blog (linked above). We will do our best to notify each winner, but it's best if you can pop in to all of the blogs once again on Wednesday; plus, you never know what kind of inspirational creation that you may find there. All you need to do is leave a comment on this Zva Blog Hop post. You do not need to leave a comment on each and every designer's blog post to qualify. The more times you leave a comment along the blog hop path though, the more chances you will have to be one of the lucky winners.

______________

While I'm at CHA next month, my husband and son get to go to a family wedding without me. I thought I'd use this blog hop to get my wedding card ready! I chose Papertrey's Heart Prints and Mixed Messages sets for the hearts and tag, as well as Spellbinders Labels Eight and Double Ended Tags Trio dies. Papers are from Cosmo Cricket's Everafter line, Something Old.

The Zva Creative product that I used was one of my favorite pearl-swirls (PE-03CA-110). I also wanted to show you how I "edit" a swirl to make it work just right for whatever I'm using it on.

The swirl that I chose worked pretty well already, but there were a couple of places that I wanted to make sure I had pearls coming out where they weren't. First, I always leave my swirl attached to its plastic backing and move it around on the card front until I've decided on its orientation and placement. After that comes the tweaking. 

I wanted the pearls to come out from behind the right heart, so I cut them apart where the cut would be hidden behind that heart. See the blank space? It will be covered. 

I almost always "edit" a swirl slightly to make it work with my image. It's simple! Also, sometimes I use just part of a swirl and save the rest for future use. 

Edited to add:  I inked the hearts first in Versamagic Thatched Straw (Pale yellow--hard to read the name, actually!) and then re-inked the edges with Versamagic Pumpkin Spice. I love chalk inks with acrylic stamps; they give the best coverage, IMO.

Hope that helps!

Debbie

_______________

Please hop on over to see Lisa Johnson at Poppy Paperie. Thank you so much for joining us!

Altered Canvas Camera Bag posted on the Classroom today

Good morning! To help kick off Ellen Hutson LLC's Crafting with Kids week, I have an altered canvas camera bag posted on the Classroom blog, complete with step-by step instructions, mistakes, fixes, and all. It's a work in progress. I think I'd better put a Copic Multiliner pen in the bag so that I can doodle when the urge strikes.

Maybe you don't want to hand a pristine canvas camera bag to your preschooler to decorate, but teens might enjoy doodling, coloring, and airbrushing on canvas!  

From June 27 through July 3, use Ellen's coupon code KIDS10 to save 10% on all in stock items in your shopping cart. Thanks for visiting.

Thank You Bouquet

 

Welcome! Today I have a fresh little thank you card for you. Ever since I saw Betsy Veldman's fabulous little rolled felt roses, I've been playing with her idea and trying to find things to add the roses to. I wish I could get the colors better in the photo above, but I have the hardest time photographing Raspberry Fizz as well as Chartreuse, especially together. Trust me--in real life, the roses are Papertrey's Raspberry Fizz and Chartreuse wool felt, and coordinate nicely with the Cosmo Cricket Delovely paper (Delectable and Delicious).

In looking for a way to make smaller Betsy-roses, I stumbled upon a couple of my Spellbinders dies that I hadn't used in a while, the Deckled Scalloped Edge Borderability and the Fleur De Lis Borderability Petite for the roses and leaves, and the Classic Scalloped Borderability Petite. for the border below the sentiment.

 

I used the tiny scallop die to cut strips that were about 3-1/2" long. After cutting the edge, I trimmed a strip so that it was about 1/8" high at the peak of the scallops before rolling them. They would obviously change sizes if you roll more tightly or loosely, but mine were about 1/2" in diameter.  At the end of the roll, I put a drop of glue and held it for a minute or so. (Tombo Mono Multi adhesive and Helmar Gemstone Glue both worked well for this.)

I still needed tiny leaves. Remembering the negative spaces in the dies, I found one that fit the bill: the fleur de lis border. See the leaf shapes from the center of the fleur de lis? They were a perfect size for my mini roses. 

The elegant Thank You sentiment is from the Just Rite Stampers  Baroque Nested Frames set, though I left off the frame this time because my card was starting to look too busy. I used the smaller Clear Horizontal Stamper base for the sentiment. I'm liking the clear blocks; although they aren't perfectly clear because of the grid piece, they are clear enough to help substantially with alignment when you are trying to stamp in two colors. 

White twill tape is from www.twilltape.com, and the vintage button is a Papertrey Ink Chartreuse button. I adore "Betsy-roses"--thanks, Betsy!

Friend

I've been playing with felt again. (It's addictive.)  I told you the other day that I was sorting through my half-finished pile and looking to see if something caught my eye again. I found this Background Basics: Text Style 2 piece, attached to another piece that just wasn't working for me. So I removed the part that I liked and simplified the background by adding just texture (Linen and Canvas Impression Plate) highlighted by some Vintage Cream ink.

For the flower I die-cut Papertrey's cream wool felt with their Beautiful Blooms II #2 die collection. Leaves are from the Delightful Dahlia collection.  I stamped on top of the text Style II layer with Fancy Flourishes, as well as adding a Zva Pearl flourish (PE-03CA-110). The little friend (Mega Mixed Messages) tag is cut with a Spellbinders Double Ended Tags die and trimmed to the proper length.  Cardstock colors are Chartreuse, Black, and Vintage Cream.

That's one more piece rescued from the "whatever shall I do with this" pile! Thanks for stopping by today.

DeLovely Anniversary

 

It's been one of those weeks. . .  Yesterday I made no cards, but I plowed through quite a bit of laundry, sorted clothes for Goodwill, and cleaned our messy van. Seriously, I don't think I'd even recognize it in a parking lot if I forgot where I parked. I was a slave driver and made my son clean his room while I worked, so we accomplished quite a bit. Today, however, I was determined to get something made. Six hours spent, and I finished only two cards. Sheesh. Are you a fast paper crafter or a slow one? I'm definitely time-challenged.  

The card I'm sharing tonight was the quicker of the two--probably only an hour and a half with interruptions. The other one I'm saving for Monday. ;-} Tonight's is an anniversary card using JustRite Stampers' new Baroque Nested Frames set.  I used the smaller of the two frames as well as a smaller Clear Horizontal Stamper. Ink is Papertrey Raspberry Fizz, amd paper is from Cosmo Cricket's Delovely line, Delimit. I used some Raspberry Fizz cardstock to mat my layers and sewed around the edges with white thread. (Yes, I actually changed the thread in my sewing machine, but white won't stay there for long.) A few little rhinestones were enough to finish it--almost. I used my Papertrey envelope liner die to create a matching envelope. 

 

That's it--one anniversary card, specially requested by my mother-in-law. Thanks for stopping by! 

Afternoon Tea

Welcome! I have a shabby little card to share today using the Afternoon Tea set from Waltzingmouse Stamps. I don't often shop for stamps since I have far too many that need my attention already, but once in a while I peek in on Claire and order a little package from over the pond. ;-) I also used her Very Vintage Labels #4 on the blue patterned layer.

Papers are from the Girls Paperie Paper Girl line. I used a few Copic markers (RV000, R20, w1, o, and Y23) to tint the image, stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black and Rich Cocoa ink. The pink pearl swirl is from Zva Creative (PEB-03CA-113).

Twill is some cream twill tape that I tea-dyed, and buttons are Sweet Blush Vintage Buttons (Papertrey Ink). Finally, I used three Spellbinders dies on the card front: Labels Four, Large Labels, and Labels Eight for the border on the yellow gingham piece at the bottom. 

A spot of tea, anyone? Thanks for visiting!

For You. . .

Welcome! Today I have a floral "For You" card to share. I've been rooting through my started-and-deserted pile to see if anything in it sparked my interest again, and I found this little Cosmo Cricket Material Girl quilted card front that I'd stitched and never finished. It deserved to be finished!

Flowers are from the Material Girl stamp set, and are stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa ink and colored with Copic markers. I cut out the flowers after coloring them and then tried a new-to-me adhesive to attach the glass beads, Helmar Gemstone Glue. (This adhesive says that it can be used to attach rhinestones to cloth and will hold up under washing--sounds like something I'd like to try on a future cloth project.)

I used three Spellbinders dies sets: Labels One, Labels Five, and Labels Trio. Cardstock and Rustic Twine are from Papertrey Ink, and buttons are Cosmo Cricket Material Girl buttons. Copic markers that I used are shown here.

Thanks for visiting, and have a fabulous weekend!

All About You 2

I had mentioned in an earlier blog post having another All About You card for the June Papertrey Ink release. This one is made with All About You Additions, stamped in Tuxedo Black Memento ink and colored with the Copic markers shown below.

I used Heather's new Library Ledger papers, and Aqua Mist Vintage Button, and a Large Scalloped Border die to cut the ivory patterned piece and its Aqua Mist mat.

Cardstock colors are Vintage Cream and Aqua Mist. I used an Aqua Mist Vintage Button and some Rustic Twine to finish up the details, as well as some pale aqua self-adhesive pearls in the centers of the scallops. The bee's wings have Prisma Glitter adhered by a glue pen. Finished size is 5-1/4", sized to fit Papertrey's Large Square envelopes. I liked how this little card turned out. Thanks for stopping by!

 

Happy Day

Today I wanted to color flowers, so I pulled out my Year of Flowers: Violets stamp set. Besides violets and pansies, they also remind me just a bit of an old fashioned wild rose, except for having more rounded leaves instead of the somewhat serrated leaf that a rose usually has. 

Papers are from the Girls Paperie, Paper Girl Vintage Patchwork paper. I used a Spellbinders Labels Eight die to cut a sheet of the rose pattern and a Hibiscus Burst mat for it. Card base is also Hibiscus Burst (Papertrey Ink).

Ribbon is May Arts pink silk. and pearl flourish is a Zva Creative flourish (PEB-03CA-113). I cut the flourish apart to make it work just right with my image, and I still have enough of the flourish left to use on a second card.

I used way too many Copic markers (mostly Papertrey Copic Trios) to color this image--it was one of those "decide as you go" projects. Better planning would have cut down on the number of markers that I needed.

A little bit of random sewing around the edges, and a bit of distressing on the edges, and that's it--one shabby wild rose card to go.  Thanks for stopping by!